CASES

I was commissioned by Historic Northampton, in Northampton, Massachusetts to make a replica of the Sarah Strong Hadley-type chest which dates to sometime between 1680 and 1720. There are approximately 130 documented Hadley-type chests. The Sarah Strong Chest is only one of seven known examples featuring the original owner’s full name on the chest front. The size of the replica is scaled to 85% for use as a hands-on teaching tool in the museum. As I reproduced the carved designs on the front of the chest, I gained insights into how these elements may have been laid out by the makers of the original Sarah Strong Chest. The replica is dyed and stained to simulate the finish on the original chest.

I was commissioned to make this chest of drawers for a client who wanted a special place to display a cherished Delft pottery lamp – the figure of a woman, who held a small lyre which had been lost over the years. Once I heard that story, I knew that I wanted to inlay the tabletop with the lady’s lost lyre. Its size and placement appear as though she dropped it on the tabletop. The inlay on each side of the chest was inspired by the spider web-shaped mullions in two small windows on the front of my client’s home.